


Comb

by HappinessIsBlau



Series: Fallout: New Vegas Daily Writing Prompts [2]
Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Found Family, Friendship/Love, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 04:37:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18684301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappinessIsBlau/pseuds/HappinessIsBlau
Summary: “Let Grandma fix your hair for your important meeting, okay?”





	Comb

“Your hair is an absolute rat’s nest, Jimmy,” Lily scolded, catching Ariah’s wrist. Arcade choked on his drink from across the room. Okay, alright, she’d admit that it had been a little while since she’d had a proper bath, but New Vegas needed its leader and she had some serious work to do. And that work did not always mean taking the time to shampoo her hair.

The braid that she’d pulled her hair into was slowly falling apart, with stands of kinky hair sticking up and out of it in every direction. Last time it was clean (a week ago…) Arcade had combed through it and plaited it for her with careful, precise fingers, but she hadn’t found another pack of the particular brand of cigarettes that he liked to bribe him with to do it again. 

“I just haven’t had time to do my hair, that’s all,” she said finally. Lily shook her head and pointed towards the Lucky 38th’s luxurious washroom. Ariah wanted to protest; she wanted to play some blackjack at the Ultra-Luxe before her meeting with the King in a few hours, but she knew that Lily was right. Ariah respected the King, and talking about business while she looked like she crawled out of Fiends Territory was bad form.

“You can’t go play with your friends until you’re clean, Jimmy, and that’s final.”

So Ariah obeyed and ran a bath with clean water that made her feel guilty and washed her hair with specially formulated shampoo that Sergio had given her, and used one of the much-too-fluffy towels that were continually laundered and restocked in the suite.

As she pulled back the curtain to her shower-room, she heard a knock at the door. Wrapped in a towel, she quietly welcomed whoever was at the door in, expecting either Cass or Veronica, as they were the only ones currently in the suite who weren’t awkward about sharing space so intimately with her. 

However, it was Lily who squeezed through the doorframe in her customary way and washed her hands in the sinky quietly. 

“Let Grandma fix your hair for your important meeting, okay?” she said affectionately.

Ariah nodded, excitedly. Even though her life was full of sinful luxury, she didn’t feel guilty about letting someone fix her hair for her. 

It had been short when she had first arrived at the Mojave, and Doc Mitchell had shaved it off to take the bullet out of her brain without interference. Since then, she’d allowed it to grow as it pleased. Sergio was the only one brave enough to touch it, most of the time - she had asked him to bleach it and he had, and her roots were now grown a full inch in.

Arcade was skilled at braiding, but it took coercion. She wasn’t sure where he learned to braid natural hair, but he could and made it seem effortless.

Lily, however, put Arcade’s excellent braiding skills to shame. Using a comb, she carefully parted her hair and gave Ariah twin french braids with practiced ease. Ariah was almost asleep, sitting quietly on the floor with Lily humming behind her, when the Nightkin finished her task.

“There you go, Pumpkin,” Lily said sweetly, and Ariah felt her hair carefully as she stood up to look at herself in the (still foggy) mirror. She beamed at Lily’s reflection. 

\--

“Looking good, Pussycat,” the King whistled at her later and she flushed from the attention. Lily had tied off the braids with bows and Ariah had resisted the urge to fuss with them as she walked through Freeside, “that ‘do really suits you,” he continued and, despite herself, she stood a little straighter in her King’s jacket.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Lily! She's dismissed quite often as a companion but I think she's really fun and really sweet. I love the idea that she might have been a hair stylist or something in the vault - look at how fashionable she is. Can you say style icon? 
> 
> Seriously though. More Lily love!


End file.
